About New York

Criticism Never Rains But It Pours

By DAVID GONZALEZ

Published: May 24, 1997

AS corporate logos go, the red Travelers umbrella ranks with icons of instant recognition like Prudential's rock or Disney's mouse ears. ''It's a beautiful device,'' said Tom De Vito, a retired ad man. ''The minute you see the red umbrella, you say Travelers.''

Then last week, a four-story red neon umbrella went up on the north face of the building that houses the Travelers Group, at 388 Greenwich Street in TriBeCa.

The first thing many people say when they see the blazing bumbershoot is unprintable in a family newspaper. Community Board 1 has been inundated with phone calls from its neighbors in Greenwich Village complaining that the huge sign has spoiled their views of lower Manhattan's twinkling towers and slender spires.

''It's the only piece of advertising you see,'' Mr. De Vito said, standing on the terrace of his 16th floor apartment on West 12th Street. ''But this is not Times Square. This is the personification of a sophisticated, urban landscape.''

This is not just about esthetics, considering that apartment owners with skyline views might be the kind of people who can invest in some of the financial services offered by subsidiaries of Travelers. Some apartment owners are grumbling that the sign could lower resale values. One owner even wondered about investing in a lawyer.

''This will do Travelers more harm to their image among the very communities they are trying to gather in under that umbrella,'' Mr. De Vito said. ''It gives a negative image to the people who have to look at it every day.''

The people who don't have to look at it -- the executives inside the building -- like it. Mary McDermott, a senior vice president for corporate communications, said the company complied with existing regulations, which allowed the logo to go up without approval from the local community board. ''You know, this is the financial capital of the world,'' she said. ''I think New Yorkers should be proud to have a company headquartered here. If we're proud of it, they should be. The Eiffel Tower was hated by the French when that was put up. Look at it now.''

Ted Birkhahn, a Buildings Department spokesman, said that zoning regulations in effect last year allowed Travelers to put up the umbrella because it was considered a corporate symbol of the building's primary occupant. Symbols, he said, differed from signs, which are seen as simple advertising. A recent change in the law would subject any future logos to a stringent review by the department, he said.

SO, the sign -- pardon, symbol -- stays.

But what is the lower Manhattan skyline if not a symbol? So great was its image that terrorists singled out the World Trade Center as their bombing target. A few blocks away rises one of the city's earliest skyscrapers, the Woolworth Building, whose Gothic grandeur began the transformation of Manhattan's landscape. Did anybody at Woolworth think they needed to enhance their building's identity with a logo?

''The corporations that really get the public's gratitude are the ones who restore the tops of their buildings and leave it at that,'' said Peg Breen, the president of the New York Landmarks Conservancy. ''You're under assault in New York from so many things that all building owners need to be thoughtful of their neighbors.''

THE company may have complied with the letter of the law, but it missed the spirit of the city. Worse, Travelers chose to make the sign face the Village, a community that is home to artists and other creative types ready to pounce on some design faux pas.

''It was like I was suddenly transplanted to Las Vegas,'' said Michael Mooney, a songwriter who first saw the umbrella last week. ''They tell me it's red neon, but it looks to me like it's hot pink. The last time I saw that color was on the miniskirt of a transvestite at Wigstock.''

Anne Compoccia, the head of Community Board 1, reacted a little more mildly. For the most part, she has appreciated the company's involvement with neighborhood improvement projects -- and the thousands of jobs it provides the city. But she wishes the umbrella would be folded up. ''With their money and ability, they could have done something a little less of an eyesore,'' she said. ''There's nothing more beautiful than the New York skyline.''